Birthday card

Here’s a bright and sunshiny birthday card that I made for a friend!

This card is based on the card sketch challenge at the Lily Bee blog this month.  I’ve started to realize something about how I use sketches these days.  I no longer keep a sketch in front of me the whole time I’m making the card (or layout).  Instead, I look at the sketch and let it sink in a little bit, and then go to my supplies start working.  More often than not, these days, I have to do my working in stages.  The sketch will percolate in my brain for a while…. then during one of V’s naptimes, I’ll perhaps get out my supplies… and during another nap, I will actually make the project.  I use the time in between getting out my supplies and making the project to decide how my supplies (and photo+story, if I’m working on a layout) fit the sketch.  It’s interesting to come back to the sketch after my project is finished to see what bits stayed around!
In this case, the features that floated to the top in my brain were the horizontal division of the card face and the banners strung along the divide.  I moved the spot for the sentiment, since my banners ended up being a much bigger feature than in the original sketch.  I like how it turned out!  I hope my friend does, too.

Supplies:
patterned paper: Lily Bee Hello Sunshine
cardstock: the Paper Studio (kraft), American Crafts (white textured)
stamps: Wplus9 and Hero Arts
crochet thread and embroidery floss
1/8″ punch: Fiskars

Compost bin

Recently, a friend of mine told me that our county provides rain barrels and compost bins to residents– for free!

We went to one of the designated locations a couple of Saturdays ago to try to get a rain barrel.  We showed up 30 minutes after they “opened”– and they had already run out!  We’re going to try again the next time they offer rain barrels.  But while we were there, we were able to listen to a presentation by some of the local Master Gardeners about composting.  After signing a pledge that I would use it, I was given a compost bin!

Husband “installed” it to the right of the garden… it has a triangular footprint:

When it is time to turn the pile, we will remove the outer shell of the bin, re-position the stakes to the spot next to the bin, and turn the pile as we shovel it back into the bin in its new location.

I’m really excited to have nice rich soil to add to my garden!

Thank-you card

I made this thank-you card to give to my Bible study group leader.  I’m hoping she doesn’t read my blog before tomorrow, when I give it to her!

The card is based on the recent Jillibean Soup blog card sketch.

I used Jillibean Soup’s Blossom Soup collection again. Partly because it makes up the vast majority of my Jillibean stash, and also because I just love it.  The colors and patterns make me so happy.

Inside, I added a little stamping using some Wplus9 stamps that I have that coordinate so well.  It’s a bit hard to see in this photo, but I love the little butterfly and heart-shaped path that I stamped with aqua ink.

Niagara Falls

When I saw Shimelle’s NSD challenge to use repetition in journaling, I knew I wanted to make this layout.  Way back in 2011, around the time that we went on this trip, I’d seen another post of hers that described this technique.  While we were in Niagara Falls, I sat down in our hotel in the evening and wrote out a list of things that had impacted us, all beginning with the words “We want to remember…”  The journaling got stapled into my planner for safekeeping, and before Vivian was born, this was one of the layouts that I sketched out and even had the photos printed.  Finally, this weekend, I got a chance to put it all together.

(click to see a slightly larger image)

The sketch idea came from one of Nichol Maguoirk’s layouts– a long time ago.  Unfortunately, I never bookmarked it, so I can’t give specific credit, but I lifted the idea of photos around the perimeter of the page with the title and journaling inside.

I cut the title with my Silhouette using the weld and offset features.  I covered up the text on the sticker (it said something generic like “memories,” which I’d never use, at least at the size that it was!) with a tiny piece of graph-patterned paper and wrote the date and who we traveled with.

I followed Shimelle’s example for the embellishment clusters…  I started with some washi tape as my anchor point (this literally is the only washi tape I own… if I wasn’t on a mission to use up my supplies, I’d totally be buying more– I love it!) and added layers of embellishments to each grouping: a stamped hexagon, a die-cut hexagon, a mistable hexagon, a badge, and some looped crochet thread.

I wrote the journaling directly onto the background cardstock (yes, I did write it in pencil first!), and each time I repeated the word “remember,” I used a teal metallic gel pen to make it stand out.

Supplies (primarily from the Studio Calico May 2012 kit, “35mm”):
patterned paper: Studio Calico (Hive– including the branding strip!), tiny snippet of My Mind’s Eye (Follow Your Heart/”Be Amazing” Societe)
cardstock: American Crafts (white textured), Recollections (kraft)
embellishments: Studio Calico (exclusive die cuts), Hero Arts/Studio Calico (hexagon stamp), Freckled Fawn (Style 308 washi tape), American Crafts/Studio Calico (hexagon mistable Thickers), Marcy Penner exclusive (badges), BasicGrey (label sticker, altered) crochet thread
Silhouette SD (with font Lobster 1.4)
journaling pens: Sakura Ballsign and GelWriter

Zoo insert

Most of the inserts for my Project 366 album are fairly simple.  To give myself some limits, all of the inserts are smaller than 12×12 (I wanted to make sure that it was clear that they were not part of the daily-photo weekly spreads).   I also challenged myself to only use scraps from my scrap drawer (including 6×6 paper pads that I’d already broken into) and embellishment packages and sheets that I’ve already started using.

For this insert, however, I felt inspired to be a little bit more detailed and embellish-y.  I found that to be really easy and enjoyable when I used supplies from a collection pack (Jillibean Soup’s Blossom Soup) that I’ve had on hand for a while now.  Usually these divided/pocket page protectors exhaust me creatively, but this time, I love the results!

front

back

Throughout my album, I have made title cards with my Silhouette software…  For this insert, I mistakenly cut the title card for the size of a baseball card protector (oops… I had been on a roll for some of the other inserts’ title cards), but I like how it turned out, matted on green cardstock to match the patterned papers.  Some little banner shapes layered on top gave me room to add the date.

I added lots of little layered embellishments using the die cuts and stickers that came with the collection.

 

P.S. There isn’t much journaling on the page, besides a few little labels, because the journaling card in the photo-a-day portion of the album gives a pretty thorough description of our day.

ATK Recipe #17: skillet baked ziti

Since I’m challenging myself+my husband to make new recipes out of our new cookbooks throughout the year (at least one from each book per month), I decided to do mini-review posts of the recipes we make on the blog.  I will not be posting the recipe (you can get it yourself in whichever book it comes from), but I’ll post a photo (if possible) of our dish made from the recipe as well as a few bullet-point notes.   There’s a category on the blog for these posts called “recipe review 2013.”

~ ~ ~

 

Recipe: Skillet Baked Ziti from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2013, (page 50)

• when did we make this?  Tuesday,  May 7, for supper.
• did we change anything? Nope.
• what did we like?  The recipe is super-easy, perfect for a weeknight supper.  Vivian really liked it too!  It was probably the creamiest and best baked ziti that I’ve eaten… but…
  
• what didn’t we like?  As husband said, it didn’t quite live up to the ATK “awesomeness” that we’ve come to expect.  While it was really very good, there was something missing that neither of us could quite put our finger on.
• will we make it again (any changes in the future)?  If we make it again (and there’s a good chance that we will, because it’s a cozy meal and very easy), I might add a little bit of sugar to the sauce, because I tend to like my sauces a bit sweeter.  I also overcooked the pasta bit (the brand I had cooked faster than the recommended time in the recipe, and I should have been more watchful), so I’ll be even more careful of that in the future.

P.S.  Our largest skillet does not have an oven-proof handle, which is why the Skillet Baked Ziti is in a plain ol’ baking dish in the photo.  Every step leading up to the oven was done in the skillet, though

Spotted: Cucumber sprouts!

At long last (I was beginning to worry that my seeds had failed), I have cucumber sprouts coming up!  Hurray!  I spotted these on Tuesday, May 7.

Burpee cucumber sprouts!

 

Ferry-Morse cucumber sprouts!